bomb. some new details this morning about the busted wannabe terrorist and brazen plan. also, mitt romney's binders full of women comment. it's kind of taken on a life of its own. how accurate was the statement about hiring women? will that hurt him or help him with the female vote? also, a new face. the incredible reconstructive surgery that's given this man a second chance at life. you won't believe what the "before" photos look like. we'll talk this morning to the doctors who led the transplant team. is and is this question appropriate in a debate? >> miss long, have you read "50 shades of grey"? >> wow, they both turned red on that question. it's our "get real" this morning. it's our thursday, october 18th, and "starting point" beginnings right now. good morning. welcome, everybody. we're hoping to learn more this morning about this man. let's show his picture. she's 21 years old.

his name is quazi nafis. he's under arrest, accused of trying to bomb the federal reserve bank of new york. he's from bangladesh, he was in the country on a student visa, studying cybersecurity at southwest state university. the "new york daily news" reports that friends there who knew him are shocked at his arrest. they say that nafis was a pious muslim who helped underprivileged children. the feds say he admired osama bin laden. our national correspondent, susan candiotti has been following this story. first, tell us about this guy. >> well, he's only 21 years old and he looks so very young. again, a college student who came here on a student visa back in january and then the feds got on to him. they say he used things like facebook, for example. said he wanted to destroy america. said, i wanted to do something to inspire the brothers coming after me. those are his words, according to prosecutors. but he thought he was getting help from people who would be able to help him carry out this attack. turns out, they were working for the fbi. that's when they set up this elaborate sting operation.

and then, once this was set in motion, they said that he is the one that selected a target, the federal reserve bank, after actually first mentioning going after president obama. but he quickly laid that aside. so this is what they are saying that he said he wanted to do, why he selected the federal reserve. quote, i came up to this conclusion, that targeting america's economy is the most efficient way to draw the path of obliteration of america. i decided to attack the federal reserve bank of new york, which is by far the largest, by assets, and most active, by volume, and most influential of the 12 regional federal reserve banks. it looks like he did his homework, according to prosecutors. he also said, as you mentioned, soledad, that he was inspired by osama bin laden and american cleric, anwar al awlaki, who was killed by a drone attack. here is the police commissioner of new york, ray kelly.

>> awlaki, of course, was eliminated last year. but what we know is that awlaki wasn't motivated for this person, nafis. "inspire" magazine, which awlaki was the prime mover behind, was the magazine or this is the article that he read that justified the killing of children, the killing of women. >> and the federal reserve bank, that holds the world's largest supply of gold bullion. soledad? >> we'll talk a little bit more about this with phil mudd. susan candiotti, excellent reporting, as always. phil mudd is the former director of the cia counterterrorism center. other stories making news, john berman's got that for us. what are you looking at? >> good morning, soledad. a senior member of al qaeda has been killed by a u.s. drone attack in yemen. the attack took place in a

farmhouse in southern yemen. nard al that shrksadoti were am those that were killed. this is a very funny event hosted by the new york arch diocese. the president campaigns in new hampshire before heading to the big apple, where he will also tape "the daily show with jon stewart." the third and final presidential debate takes place monday night. that will focus on foreign policy. cnn's live coverage from boek ka raton, florida, begins at 7:00 eastern time. the women behind the candidates also on the stump. ann romney sits down to talk to the women of "the view." mitt romney bowed out of that opportunity. and mrs. obama sits down on "live! with kelly and michael" to talk about the spouses of the debate. >> i compared it to the olympic parents watching their kids on that balance beam.

like, oh, you know. lots of clenching. >> you have to be conscious, because the camera's always on you. so in you're head, you've got to be going, get 'em, baby! get 'em! yeah, that's my man! the nationwide outbreak of fungal meningitis that has claimed four more lives, a total of 19 deaths. 247 people across 15 states have been sickened. the outbreak has been traced to contaminated pain steroid made by a massachusetts pharmaceutical company. federal officials are investigating after raiding the company's facility on tuesday. a deadly outbreak of e. coli in north carolina has been traced to a county fair. at least 61 people, including three dozen children became sick. health officials say one child has now died. they believe the source of this outbreak is the petting zoo, as e. coli is often spread from animals to humans. that's why they say wash your hands after going tote petting zoo. in the baseball playoffs, the st. louis cardinals have

taken a two to one lead in the national league championship series. they beat the giants 3-1 on the strength of rookie matt carpenter's two-run home run. carpenter had replaced the team's injured star, carlos beltran. if carlos beltran is really hard, that would really not be a good thing for the cardinal. meanwhile, the yankees will try to stay afloat after getting rained out last night in detroit. the yankees and tigers will play game four tonight. the tigers are up three games to one, the yankees have won no games. a little piece of news just out, "newsweek" going out of print. by 2013, it will all be digital. i'm reading that, of course, on my ipad. >> that's huge. that's giant. my goodness. and the yankees just have to win the next game, and the next game, and then the fourth game. >> there's only one team in history ever to do that. >> and this time around, it will be the new york yankees. thank you, john berman for your faith in my team. back to our "starting point"

this morning. we're talking about this 21-year-old bangladeshi man who's in custody this hour, allegedly trying to blow up the new york federal reserve. i want to welcome phil mudd. his name is quazi nafis. we know that he reached out. susan candiotti was just updating us with her report. somehow he ended up in contact with an fbi informant. can you give us some details about that outreach and how that contact happened? >> when you look at somebody like this, who is an individual plotter, who thinks like al qaeda, but has probably never met an al qaeda member. if he's trying to develop a plot, he's first got to find some co-conspirators, people who want to do this with hem. because he's not going to have the capability and sometimes the courage to do it himself. and the second thing you need is some technical capability. so by definition, people like this are vulnerable to penetration, because they've got to look around and find somebody to join the plot. >> he wrote this.

"i came to the conclusion that targeting america's economy is the most efficient way to draw the path of obliteration of america. i decided to attack the federal reserve bank of new york, which is by far the largest by assets, most active by volume, and most influential of the 12 regional federal reserve banks." what kind of damage could have been done if he was able to achieve what he wanted to achieve? >> the damage is about the panic he sets across new york city and across america. we've seen this kind of plotting, obviously on 9/11, when they hit the world trade center, which wasn't just a building, it was the idea of american power. we saw plotting against banks after 9/11 by al qaeda. we saw al qaeda videos showing they had cased banks again in new york city. so they've thought about this repeatedly, not just as a way to damage a building, but as a way to destroy the american psychology that says, money is what makes america tick.

>> and i should say, he's quoted by the fbi, in the fbi complaint against him, as saying that. let me clarify that. so what kind go ahead and just arrest him, when there was enough of a paper trail around what he was hoping to do, as opposed to letting the entire plot play out. >> there's a couple reasons for doing that. the first is a reason we haven't talked much about in the media the past day. and that is, you don't want to just understand him, you want to understand whether there's a broader conspiracy here. you want to understand, where's the money? who recruited him? who did he recruit? was he inspired? where did he travel? is there a broader conspiracy? if you move too quickly, you risk leaving some pieces of this on the cutting room floor and that's a real problem for law enforcement. >> and is there a sense that there was a broader conspiracy? because we know that the only explosives he had were those that were given to him by the informant. he mentioned a couple of times in the information, the complaint, that he wanted to go back to bangladesh. and he was sort of talked out of it. and you know, it kind of, i guess, went fairly quickly, right? the start of it was in july,

mid-october would have been the fruition of his goal. the van was allowed to go through and park in front of the federal reserve, which, you know, if everybody hadn't known about the plot or the alleged plot, you know, it probably wouldn't or might not have happened the way it happened. all those things make me wonder, you know, is there a real broader conspiracy or is he a young man who kind of wants to be a terrorist? >> i think your point is correct. it looks like they resolved the question of broader conspiracy pretty quickly here. but then you face the question, and put yourself in front of a jury. you've got two cases to make. the first is, there's a guy who's talked violence against america. pretty weak case. the second is somebody who repeatedly tried to trigger a device, and we have evidence that shows that he thought that device was going to explode and maybe kill dozens of people. those two cases, if you put them side by side, help explain why you let a case like this roll out. you want to get in front of a jury and say, this isn't a wan nah be, he's a real guy.

>> phil mudd, we appreciate your insight on this case. >> my pleasure. still ahead this morning on "starting point," we're going to talk about mitt romney's binder full of women comment. it's interesting, in the debate, it actually kind of slid by a lot of people, but it has become an internet sensation. we'll take a look at whether or not it's going to have an impact on voters, specifically female voters. that's coming up next. and one of the world's most powerful women takes a fall. the australian prime minister's unfortunate trip. we'll unfortunate you on what happens there. christine has a look a at business for us this morning. >> the business of taxes. how will mitt romney pay for his $5 trillion tax plan? a new report shows one option may not work. we'll run the math. you're watching "starting point." the all-new cadillac atsbrig to test the 2.0-liter turbo engine. [ engine revs ] ♪ [ derek ] 272 horsepower. the lightest in its class. the cadillac ats outmatches the bmw 3 series. i cannot believe i have ended the day

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welcome back to "starting point." i'm christine romans minding your business. a new report from the tax policy center says that the math for governor mitt romney's tax plan still doesn't add up. quote, these new estimates suggest that romney will need to do much more than capping itemized deductions to pay for

the roughly $5 trillion in rate cuts and other tax benefits he proposed. here's the math. the tax policy center says assuming a 20% cut in tax rates, an appeal of the alternative minimum tax, a repeal of all itemized deductions would raise just under $2 trillion over ten years. now, romney's been floating numbers about how much he would cap deductions. at the debate, he said he would cut rates and if he limited taxpayer deductions to $2,500,ed that help pay for it. the tax policy center calculated how much revenue that would generate. the romney campaign dismissing this report, saying that researchers there, quote, inserted their own assumptions in order to reach a biased conclusion. and the researchers said they had to make assumptions because there aren't enough concrete details in the mitt romney tax plan to do a full score. >> that's been some of the pushback every time there's a complaint about what they've done, and they're like, we have to guess at some of it. give us some more details. >> and the campaign has said

they're going to be working with congress, when mitt romney is president. that's what they say. >> that's what they say. president obama and mitt romney going to share the same stage one more time tonight, to lift other people up. 48 hours after that bitter, bruising debate, the candidates will attend the al smith charity dinner. brianna keilar is live from washington this morning. this charity event is actually usually very, very funny. but do you think it might be different this time around, since they clearly dislike each other and we saw that, i thought, on tuesday night? >> i think, yes, we did the see that, but i think they just have to be funny tonight. that's part of it. this is a dinner to benefit needy kids, organized by the catholic archdiocese, something that's been going on since the 40s. this is something, soledad, where we've seen candidates come out, put on a good face, and also white tie, and get some laughs. just take a listen to what we heard four years ago around the

same from john mccain and barack obama. >> this campaign needed the common touch of a working man. after all, it began so long ago with a heralded arrival of of a man known to oprah winfrey as the one. being a friend and colleague of barack, i just called him that one. >> many of you know that i got my make, barack, from my father. what you may not know is that barack is actually swahili for "that one." and i got my middle name from somebody who obviously didn't think i'd ever run for president. >> so obviously some good nature there between those two, because they were in the senate together, but also at the time, that was a very contentious election, so i think they're just going to have to get over it tonight. and soledad, i will tell you, the president has a little bit

of a warm-up, because what he's doing before the dinner is taping "the daily show with jon stewart." he's been on several times. this is only his second time as president. >> which could be very stressful. maybe it's not a warm-up. brianna, they've been talking, as you well know. we are both covering this debate, talking about women. the campaign and the tone and the topic of conversation is about women. both candidates are working to woo female voters. what are they doing for that? >> reporter: and the reason they're wooing is because going into that debate, we saw that gallup poll, right, soledad, that showed at least this individual poll, and the obama campaign will contest it, that mitt romney and barack obama are neck and neck in battleground states when it comes to women, and normally president obama leads. so that's a concern. you can see just how hard the candidates are trying to woo women. you can see by the wristband on president obama yesterday when he was in iowa, a hot pink wristband to support breast cancer awareness. president obama seizing on something that mitt romney said

in the debate. you've heard the binder comment. mitt romney was trying to make the case that when he was massachusetts governor, he was trying to hire women in his cabinet. he said, basically, that he'd ordered up a whole binder of women to look at that. president obama and vice president biden seizing on that on the trail. >> we don't have to collect a bunch of binders to find qualified, talented, driven young women, ready to learn and teach in these fields right now. >> the idea they had to go and ask where a qualified woman was, he just should have come to my house. he didn't need a binder. >> now, the romney campaign has been trying to do some damage control on this, as democrats seized those comments. and also what they're trying to do, soledad, as they woo women, they put out an ad, trying to soften, at least rhetorically, mitt romney's anti-abortion rights stance. so this is very much in play. women could decide this election and it's not lost on either ticket. >> you can definitely tell when

people are spinning very hard or working very hard to right the ship. it obviously had some kind of an impact. brianna keilar for us this morning. thank you, brianna. and i should mention, a little bit later this hour, we'll talk to the woman who created the very funny binders full of women blog. it's become an overnight sensation on the internet. we're going to chat with her about that. also ahead this morning, it's a question that you would not necessarily expect at a senate debate. >> miss long, have you read "50 shades of grey"? >> since both women turned pink, i'm going to say yes for both of them. is that question even appropriate? it's our get real this morning and the team is heading in to talk about that. much more. we're back right after this short break. morning, guys! [ russian accent ] rubles. eh, eheh, eh, eh. [ brooklyn accent ] 50% more simoleons. [ western accent ] 50% more sawbucks. ♪ [ maine accent ] 50% more clams. it's a lobster, either way. [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card. with a 50% annual cash bonus, it's the card for people who like more cash.

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morning. welcome, everybody. our team this morning, ben smith is the editor in chief of buzz feed. the former d.c. mayor, adrian fenty joins us this morning as well. and will cain is a columnist with theblaze come. john berman sticking around from "early start." let's talk about our get real this morning. strong reaction from a debate moment this week. it was not the debate moment, or the debate, the romney/obama debate. this was featuring two senate candidates in new york, kirsten gillibrand, big lead over her republican challenger, wendy long. but here was a question that was asked during this debate, which was their only debate. >> miss long, have you read "50 shades of gray"? >> no. >> senator? >> no. >> me neither, for the record. okay. >> i thought it was funny, but some people are asking, was it appropriate? will cain? >> we're going to start the day off agreeing, which is nice.

i thought it was nice. come on, lighten up. 80%, 90% of the time, you're going to be very serious and you're going to talk about policies and principles. lighten up. i want to see your personality today. have you read it? >> i have not also, so it's unanimous. people thought it was a little bit sexist, i suppose, to ask the two women who were running for senate that question. >> well, there's only those two women running for senate. >> but they said if there were two guys, they wouldn't have asked the question. >> it's kind of like asking chuck schumer, his favorite eroti erotica. it seems a little unlikely. >> why was there no follow-up question there? >> what i do like to see, when you throw kind of a wild card at somebody, how they respond. not even the specifics of the question. but i thought it was great, both of them laughed, no one was chagrinned. it was sort of like they looked like people who can handle a curveball, laugh about it, and move on to the degree to which it was important. you have read -- >> i have read "50 shades of

gray." you made me. this show made me. >> it's true, i did. >> they get a lot of people. things you don't expect. >> oh, my god, it's going to be a good day. will cain and i agree. couple ba . still ahead on "starting point," a gunshot injury happened to this man. he lost his lips, his nose, parts of his mouth, but this is what he looks like now, after 36 hours of surgery. he has a brand-new face. we're going to talk to the doctor who led the team behind the incredible transplant. the before photos are a little bit gory, but we will show them to you right after this short break. ♪ into a scooter that talks to the cloud? ♪ or turn 30-million artifacts... ♪

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good morning. welcome, everybody. you're watching "starting point." we could learn more today about the man who's accused of plotting to bomb the federal reserve bank of new york. federal officials say he was

inspired by al qaeda and wanted to plan a massive attack. he's 21 years old. his name is quazi nafis. he was born in bangladesh and in this country on a student visa. he studied cyber security at southeast state university earlier this year, though he was transferring to another university. national correspondent susan candiotti is following the developments in this story for us. what else do we know about this young man? >> you know, we know he looks very young. apparently people who lived in his neighborhood in the new york area didn't know very much about him, supposedly very quiet, very religious, not surprisingly. the fbi says they have a lot of their undercover operation on videotape. so they have a lot of what he was talking about. and that's when we come to learn that evidently his target was the federal reserve. his aim was to take down the american economy by selecting, as a target, the federal reserve bank. now, what he didn't know is the people he thought were going to be helping him turned out to be

undercover fbi agents. and so they worked with him to help put together, they say, a 1,000-pound bomb that really was a fake, it was a prop, it was inert. but on his way over to the federal reserve bank, he said he wanted to pull over and make a suicide tape. and on this tape at a hotel he says, okay, "i won't stop until i attain victory or martyrdom." and he went on to say, "i just want something big, something very big that will shake the whole country and will make mus li limes one step closer to run the whole world." but the plot fell apart. when he went to detonate what he thought was a bomb, that's when the fbi moved in on them. and they think he was a lone wolf working by myself on this one. >> and there are some questions about, you know, is he a wannabe terrorist, or is this someone who seriously had a network? and who was that network? and were they in a position to

actually pull off some kind of terror attack, if they hadn't been assisted by those very people who had infiltrated and were trying to uncover their plot? >> certainly, he seemed to have been inspired by al qaeda, according to all my sources and court documents. he wanted to take down america. thought he was getting help from other people. thought he could pull this thing off. but what he didn't know, the people working with him -- and the fact of the matter is, he didn't have anyone else working with him on this. he may have talked to other people, but no one else joined in. >> do you have any idea of what exactly the fbi and the new york police department did to find this guy? it seems like great police work from what i've read over the past 24 hours. just anything you can enlighten us. >> yeah, imagine, nowadays, everything revolves around social media. so one of the ways they made contact with him was on facebook. he was writing on facebook, he was using, allegedly, twitter as well. and so that is how they originally contacted him. and, of course, as we all know

in these undercover operations, this is one of the things they're doing constantly. monitoring social media for anyone who's saying anything that might raise some eyebrows. and that's how they -- >> is there any evidence that had the fbi not sort of created this plot, that they would have been dangerous? well, that is the question, isn't it? that's always the question. and i'm sure that may very well be a defense in this case. was he set up? fbi contends, and in court papers, state that it was his idea. we'll have to see how it plays out in court. >> it is a fascinating story. susan candiotti, thank you for your reporting. other stories making news today. john berman's got that? >> thanks, soledad. the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks is speaking out. at his pre-trial hearing, khalid sheikh mohammed claims the u.s. has killed more people in the name of national security than he's charged with murdering. mohammed and four others are accused of recruiting and training the 9/11 hijackers. they all face the death penalty. under a court order and over the objection of the boy scouts of america, some 20,000 pages

from the organization's so-called perversion files are being made public today. they document cases of more than 1,200 leaders and volunteers dismissed by the scouts for alleged sexual abuse. cnn spoke to one former boy scout who says he was victimized by the adult who recruited him. >> just thinking about it makes me angry. because how could you do that to somebody? how could you bring yourself to do that to somebody that is so innocent and, you know, has done nothing wrong. >> the victim's names will not be released. the documents cover the period from 1965 to 1985. in your a.m. house call, what could be a significant advance in the battle against pancreatic cancer. researchers from the university of michigan say a drug made from a plant called thunder god vine completely killed pancreatic

tumors in mice. but researchers say that doesn't mean the drug will work in humans. there is always hope. a long-term study of nearly 15,000 healthy male doctors over 50 found those who took a multi-vitamin every day had an 8% lower chance of cancer risk. the previous studies suggested the vitamin supplements had no impact on cancer or maybe they even raised the cancer risk. researchers point out that multi-vitamins may have a different impact on women, younger men, and people who are less healthy. head over heels, that is australian prime minister julian galard, falling hard in front of the cameras in india. she had just laid a wreath when her heel got caught in a soft patch of grass and she is okay. that is why i hate high heels. >> oh, my gosh, that is -- that happens. she could have broke her ankle that way. that poor woman. >> she's okay. >> good. i'm glad to hear that. this morning, we've got this incredible story for you. a man whose face has been

replaced by plastic surgery. take a look. this is richard lee norris. this is seven months after a marathon surgery that took place. they had to replace his jaw, his teeth, his tongue. before the surgery, he had had a devastating gun accident. i'm going to show you some of the damage he suffered from that accident. it can be very hard to look at. here's a comparison four, and then six days after the surgery, and then earlier this month. so on the far left, this is what he looked like before he had the surgery. look at his face. it's pretty much shrunken and mangled. and then days after the surgery is that middle shot. obviously, lots of swelling there. and this is today. he says now no one even gives him a second look. the surgery came after ten years of research at the university of amanda medical center. it was funded by the office of naval research and the department of defense. their hope, of course, is that they'll be able to help veterans who have been wounded in action as well. dr. eduardo rodriguez left the face transplant team. he's the chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the

university of maryland medical center. it's nice to have you with us, doctor. the operation, i know, was 36 hours long. what was the hardest thing to do? because when we look at these before pictures of this man, i mean, he barely has what would be recognized as a regular-shaped face. >> that's absolutely right, soledad. the hardest thing is we spent so many years, so many number of years trying to reconstruct richard, however, it wasn't normal. now during the operation to remove everything that we had spent so many years was really the moment that failure was not an option. so removing everything that we spent a number of years reconstructing, without guaranteed success that the face would work. and thankfully, with all our efforts and all our practice, everything that we did to ensure a successful run, it turned out beautifully. and he's doing great. >> oh, my goodness. put those pictures back up again, guys. because here's what richard said before the surgery. he said -- after the surgery. "for the past 15 years, i lived as a recluse, hiding behind a

surgical mask, doing most of my shopping at night, when less people were around. i can now go out and not get the stares and have to hear comments that people would make. i'm now able to walk past people and no one even gives me a second look." what kind of -- how was he emotionally doing and what kind of preparation did you have to do to really replace the physical structure that kind of holds your face together underneath your skin? >> well, richard is an incredible person. and he's a fantastic patient. he's always been very dogmatic in attending his clinical appointments and doing everything that we had planned for. what tough to understand is you mentioned, these pictures are very graphic. for us, richard is just a normal person with a facial deformity. however, the world does not see him that way and everybody stares at him. so for 15 years, living with that psychological distress of really not appearing normal is a huge difficult and very difficult thing to live with. now, he was the right person.

he has evolved to be a normal person. that was his only request. he wanted to blend into society and be an average person. and that's exactly what's happening today. so the amount of preparation involved to select the right patient, but also to prepare him for what's going to happen, of which can be unpredictable, is a lot of work. that's why it involves a lot of psychologists, social workers, individuals that are constantly advising of what can go well, but also what can go wrong. and he is very well prepared, very much of an informed consumer, and he knew what he was getting into. with all our practice, our strong research evidence, ten years of commitment to this project. everything went without a hiccup and he's doing beautifully. he works very hard at everything, that we set him out to do. he's achieved every milestone that we expected. and also really gone beyond our expectations. >> he looks amazing. >> when you look at his ability to smile, it's becoming more symmetric. just to see that face move is remarkable. truly spectacular.

>> as his surgeon, it must be really a wonderful thing. congratulations to you and your team, dr. eduardo rodriguez, who's professor of surgery at the university maryland school of medicine. still ahead on "starting point," "newsweek" announces it's going all digital. is it the beginning of the end for magazines and print? and after mitt romney said binders full of women during the presidential debate, it kind of took on a life of its own, including a tumblr page that was created just moments after he said it. the woman who created that blog will join us straight ahead. when you have diabetes... your doctor will say get smart about your weight. i tried weight loss plans... but their shakes aren't always made for people with diabetes. that's why there's glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. and they have six grams of sugars. with fifteen grams of protein to help manage hunger...

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you're watching "starting point." "newsweek" is announcing this morning that it is going to an all digital format starting next year. the final issue will be prints on december 31st. in an e-mail to our staff, the editor, tina brown, says this. "our business has been increasingly affected by a challenging print advertising environment, while "newsweek's" online and ereader content has built a rapidly growing audience through the apple, kindle, zinio, and nook stores as well as on the daily beast." make sense to you? >> it makes sense that the future is not in print. it's not breaking news right now and there's tons of compelling journalism that's going on that's native to the web. i'm not sure the nook is necessarily going to be the thing -- it's not like "newsweek" is going to be something that anybody is reading at or looking at under that name in a few years. and i think their play is the daily beast, that their website, hopefully works out. but i don't think it's not necessarily something to lament, that we're not going to be cutting down thousands of trees. that's not necessarily a bad

thing. >> the death of print has been foretold for ten years. the truth is, print is not going to die. certain kinds of print is going to die. it might be less, but general interest magazines will go away. there will be a place for niche, high-quality content and it will be in print in the future. >> and there probably is a better opportunity if tina brown, or anybody else can take advantage of it, by working, as she said, google, apple, the internet technology companies that are coming out with new ways to get information to people. we'll talk about tumblr, twitter. they've got to do a much better job and i think they can make more money in the long run if they're aggressive about it. >> will the "newsweek" title go away? if you have the daily beast, will it be "newsweek"/the daily beast? >> they'll be attempted to what life does, to basically sell the brand, whoever will pay a little bit of money for it. >> can general interest survive then? >> i think great general interest websites are thriving. that's what we're trying to do. at buzz feed, i mean, i don't think -- i don't really think the print for anybody survives. i mean, you have -- >> really, you think in ten

years there's no -- >> i took one of my kids to the store the other day, to a cafe, and he looked at these newspapers and he said, how do i use these? do we have to pay for them? >> and you think that speaks about children in general or your children? >> he's perfectly comfortable on these other platforms. we have this nostalgic affection for print. >> but books are doing well. >> paper books or books on these things? because that's what i'm reading on them. >> but people also predicted the demise of people reading actually books, and that's not the case. >> people love predicting things. >> i'm pretty comfortable predicting the rise of the internet at this point. >> it's not the rise of the internet, the fall of print. still ahead this morning on "starting point," a prediction from you. the most buzzed about moment from tuesday's presidential debate sparked an internet sensation. listen. >> i went to a number of women's groups and said, can you help us find folks, and they brought us

whole binders full of women. >> binders full of women. up next, you'll meet the woman who created the binders full of women tumblr blog. we're back in a moment. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. your soups are so awesomely delicious my husband and i can't stop eating 'em! what's...that... on your head?

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welcome back to "starting point," everyone. lance armstrong has been dropped by another major sponsor, anheuser-busch, after nike cut ties with armstrong, citing the seemingly insurmountable evidence against doping. he has also stepped down as the chairman of livestrong b.

instead of november 6th, the spanish translation said the election was november 8th. county officials say only about 50 of the incorrect cards were handed out and they say now they have fixed that huge mistake. >> how did that happen? the wrong date for the spanish language in maricopa county. really? someone who is a conspiracy theorist would have a field day with that one. not me. just saying. just pointing it out. just like the big bird remark at the first debate in denver, a simple four-word phrase became a sensation overnight. >> we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that would be qualified to be part of our cabinet. i went to a number of groups and asked if they could help us find stuffs and they brought us binders full of women. >> a tumbler site called binders

fe full of women. it has now received nearly 5,000 original submissions since tuesday night. what stuck out to you during the dough bait about that phrase? we were sitting there, listening to it and i remember thinking it sounded aawkward but other people jumped on it because it triggered something. >> it was awkward, your right. it was funny, which was really struck me about it. i giggled. i was sitting on my couch, with a left hipt -- my lap top on my lap. it took its life from there. >> did you immediately create the page like moments after? >> i would say it was up within a minute. >> he didn't say binders full of women's resumes or cvs. he said binders full of women.

the tumbler site is perfect. it's made for the internet. >> within a minute? >> i had had the tumbler open. i was search tabs, looking if it was available i let it sit for maybe a few seconds. i got into photo shop, did two photos, put it on tumbler. >> one of those was the binder with the women underneath. >> yeah. >> fast and put together, slammed together. >> that's what i've been saying, poorly photo shopped because they were very quick. one is the boinder. that's the second one and the first one was the words trap her, keep her. i'm sitting on the couch by myself, trapper keeper. trap her, keep her. >> that works. >> i don't know if i put it up. then i went back to look and i got so many notes and it was all

on twitter. >> veronica, i asked you what did you do with your audience? you more than doubled the amount of people who follow you. what do you do with it now? i heard you lost your job shortly before the debate the other night. >> i've been saying, hey, you should hire me if you -- >> buzz feed across the table. >> hi. >> smart, creative, within a minute. we can make this happen. that's brilliant. >> there you go. >> do you worry about dipping in -- i don't know your politics at aall. do you worry about getting involved in sort of a heated political environment by putting something out there? have you gotten some feedback? >> yeah. not on the binders blog but on my personal blog where i have comments open i've been getting interesting feedback. i'm leaving it open because it's nice to read. it's not public. only i can see it. but i definitely didn't make this for any political reason. i just thought it was funny. >> what do you think the political impact is, ultimately? >> it makes romney look silly.

i don't think this is the thing that will define the debate. it's more something that's spiraled out on to the internet where people are having a lot of fun with it. >> the question is should it? it's certainly funny. serious political analysis dumber than a bag of hammers. you can't make him look like a sexist or out of touch guy from one throw away line in a debate f you do, you're trying too hard. >> it does add to his really varying statements about abortion and women's rights. and, i mean, he looked completely out of touch. >> you're manufacturing that, mayor, you're creating that, you're building on something that already existed in your mind and using this as evidence. >> but that's part of campaigns. if he's coming into the campaign looking ambivalent or not consistent on women's issues and he makes this statement that seems like i don't know any women on my own when tha i can tap when i become governor, that

i need a binder full of women? it adds to his -- >> the romney campaign yesterday they came out with a new ad, a tweet from mitt romney on this, all four candidates, mitt romney, paul ryan, president obama and joe biden -- >> they think it's a big deal because it caught fire from people like veronica and it can spin out of control. >> the sd thing is that for romney, as fairly often for him, this is an area where he has an unquestionably good record in terms of bringing women into his record in massachusetts. that's a real thing. but he just managed to really mess it up. >> veronica, desuza, again -- >> we'll talk. >> funny. sense of humor. and speedy. i think we have a connection here. thank you for joining us this morning. >> thanks for having me. >> you bet. the busted terror plot to blow up the new york fed. new details about the student who wanted to destroy america. ashton kutcher replaced

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welcome back, everybody. terror plot foiled. the feds say he wanted to blow up the new york fed. the wanna-be terrorist and his brazen plan. is it a binders blunder? >> they brought us whole binders full of women. >> well, it was funny. but does it affect voters, especially female voters? we'll talk about that this morning. are these ghosts a racist symbol? why i zoo had to remove these hanging halloween decorations in our tough call. plus a top celebrity chef reaching out to new clientele. she has a new food truck for dogs. it's thursday, october 18th. and "starting point" begins right now.

welcome, everybody. joining us this morning, ben smith, the editor in chief of buzz feed, will cain is a columnist at blaze.com. talking this morning about the alleged terrorist plot to attack a major u.s. target and to allegedly tank the u.s. economy. it was foiled by an elaborate sting by the fbi. the suspect is 21 years old. his name is quazi nafis. when he tried to set it off, nothing happened. that's because the explosives were duds. they had been supplied to him by the fbi. it turns out they were on to him the whole entire time. new york city place say this is the 15th terror plot they have foiled since 9/11.

>> this individual came here with the express purpose of committing a terrorist act. he was motivated by al qaeda. so, we see this threat as, you know, being with us for a long time to come. >> want to get to cnn national security analyst peter bergen and choef business correspondent ali velshi as well. you were at the fed monday. did you notice anything strange about the fed on monday? >> no. we all travel a lot. i go through aairport security and i know what on me is supposed to trigger the signal and i kept getting stopped. i couldn't actually get through. i kept emptying my pockets. there was nothing left. finally, he established that i didn't have anything on me, the security guard. >> lots of security there? >> but not a lot of people. two guys posted in the front. no heavy armor. sidearms. it doesn't have a sense of being a fortress. it's not like the new york stock

exchange where you can't even get a car anywhere near it. >> peter bergen, as we heard from ray kelly, this is the 15th terrorist plot that has been foiled since 9/11. where would you rank this particular one? we don't have aall the details about it yet. in terms of seriousness. >> it doesn't compare to some of the plots we saw in 2009, 2010, soledad. you may recall aazazi, who was in contact with al qaeda, travel friday denver to new york, planning to blow up bombs on the new york subway. that was actually a much more active plot. and it doesn't compare a bomb-laden suv in 2010 that drove a van into times square and tried to detonate it. he came here, in his own words, to do jihad. on the other hand he doesn't seem to be particularly bright. he was somebody who really believed that the guy he was talking to was going to travel

overseas and meet the leaders of al qaeda and get sign off for plot, which that seems pretty improbable, not the sort of story most people would believe. so, you know, i think it's significant, by the way, that "the new york times" put this on a-23 in the newspaper. that is a signal from the times that while this was, you know, certainly a plot of interest it's not of seismic importance. this guy was sort of a wanna-be. he said he was in touch with al qaeda. i don't think that's even clear. he said he was in touch with al qaeda in bangladesh. >> susan candiotti was reporting he was act ago loan. will, you want to jump in. >> i have this concept of a wanna-be compared to someone who is in touch with al qaeda. why is it that a lone wolf we should be taking less seriously than someone who may be connected overseas? is it simply because he wouldn't have the logistics to put this

together, acting alone? >> yes. at ft. hood, texas, where major hassan killed 13 people. 9/11 involved dozens of hijackers, people from all over the world. the more people involved, the more threatening you can make it. from a law enforcement perspective, it's easier to break up things with larger numbers of people. lone wolves, by definition they're not in contact with people so they're harder to detect. >> let me ask ali a question. this is a little bit of the fbi's quote of what his motivati motivations were. i came to this conclusion, about the federal reserve bank in new york, targeted america's economy is the best way to attack the obliteration of america. most influential of the federal

reserve banks. >> this speaks to peter's point. that's lifted straight from wikipedia. if you went outside and asked ten americans, ten new yorkers about the federal reserve, i don't think they could tell you anything about this building or what it does. some people may know they have the biggest gold vault in the world. it's not a well-known landmark. >> is that brilliance or stupidity? >> what he got he didn't know in any other fashion. his words were exactly what he got off of the internet. >> i wonder, for peter, what he makes out of the fbi and new york police letting this get all the way to the point where the guy pushes the trigger. are they also trying to send a message to the greater terrorism world that, you know, we can get you? we're on to you in some public way or was this just an attempt to make sure you had enough probable cause for an arrest? >> i think maybe a little bit of

both. certainly if you read the complaint against him, you know, it's going to be -- if everything is true in that complaint, a jury will not find it problematic to convict this guy. but i think also -- the number of these cases, new america foundation where i work, we sort of track jihadists and there's remarkably few er of these case and it may go to the mayor's point that people are aware that the feds are doing a pretty good job of breaking these kinds of plots up and you're taking quite a risk, talking in the muslim-american community in new york about wanting to do jihad, you're likely to bump into an undercover informant, as happened in this case. >> peter bergen, appreciate that. ali velshi as well. thanks, guys. john berman has other news for us. >> eight al qaeda fighters have been killed by a u.s. drone strike in yemen. it took place at a farmhouse in the southern part of the

country. high-ranking al qaeda operative was among the eight that were killed. together again. mitt romney and president obama will be on the same stage in new york tonight, al smith charity dinner. it's always very funny, mitt romney's only public appearance today. the president campaigns in new hampshire before heading to the big apple for a taping of the jon stewart show. it's actually called the daily show and tonight's charity dinner. third and final presidential debate takes place monday night. and will focus on foreign policy. it begins at 7:00 pm time on cnn. plunge into politics, bloomberg a billionaire and registered independent is creating his own super pac to direct millions of dollars in donations to elect candidates who support his biggest policy initiatives, legalizing same-sex

marriage, overhauling schools included. a total of 19 deaths so far in the meningitis case. 247 people across 15 states have been sickened. a massachusetts pharmaceutical company manufactured the drug. a deadly outbreak of e.coli in north carolina has been traced to a county fair. one choild has now died. they believe the source of the outbreak is the petting zoo as e.coli is often spread from animals to humans. wash your hands after going to the petting zoo. ashton kutcher's move to "two and a half men" is paying off. >> i'm not broke. i'm worth like $2.5 billion. >> beg your pardon? >> kutcher made an estimated $24 million between 2011 and 2012.

nowhere near the $40 million charlie sheen made the year before. >> it's kind of near it. >> capitalism is a wonderful thing. >> not to complain about the 24. >> ray romano tied at third. >> how many shows? >> they work hard. >> 24 million, nice number. mitt romney's binders full of women comment. could be more than an internet sensation. could have affect on women voters. woel talk with bob mcdonald, a romney supporter, that's coming up next. presidential candidates weren't the only ones fired up from the dough bait comment. one of romney's sons, who took a swing [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesn't work on runny noses. what? [ male announcer ] it doesn't have an antihistamine. really? [ male announcer ] really. alka-seltzer plus cold and cough fights your worst cold symptoms,

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. welcome back, everybody. today, the candidates are on the trail again, ultimately both landing here in new york city tonight for an annual catholic charity dinner. for president obama and joe biden it was all about the binder, attacking mitt romney over comments he made at the debate. concerning binders full of women, here is what happened. >> we don't have to collect a bunch of binders to find talented, driven young women, ready to learn and teach in these fields right now. >> the idea that he had to go and ask where a qualified woman was, he should have just come to my house. he didn't need a binder. >> governor of virginia, chairman of the republican governors association. he is a romney campaign supporter. nice to see you, sir. always nice to have you with us. you can see, obviously --

>> thanks, soledad. >> -- the obama campaign is running with what has become with a little bit of an internet sensation, tumbler count that went viral. is there a genuine concern about any kind of impact on voters outside of being sort of funny from some people's perspective? the big question for you would be do you worry that this will actually affect women and their vote? >> not at all. this is a serious campaign. and i think a laugh or two here is a good idea. hopefully, the catholic charities event will get a few more of those. if you saw the pew poll today, mitt romney has gone from 18 points down with women to now tied, 47-47. and despite all the rhetoric and all the attempts of the obama administration to separate men from women over social issues, largely contrived, i think men and women care about in this election, soledad, is the economy, getting us back to work and getting us out of debt.

mitt romney's point as that he actually affirmatively went out to make sure he had great, competent, qualified women. at one point he had more women in his cabinet than any governor in the country. that was the point. i'm glad the obama administration is having fun with it. the point is that this race is now clearly going in the way of mitt romney because he's a serious candidate. he's a leader. and i think the debates are proving that. >> hang on for one second, governor. i want to ask a question of will cain. he is saying at the end of the day, it's funny and everyone can run around with it. the bigger question is, will it have political impact? supporters will always say not really. >> it's always hard to -- and we should not -- underestimate the power of popular media like snl parodies. >> what is that impact? >> for the casual, uninformed voter, i'm afraid it impacts them quite a bit. the question isn't will it, but should it? the mayor and i had a back and forth about this. something that is being built into a political tool that was just a little funny line.

>> governor, let's get back to a little bit of the debate. we heard in the dough bait mitt romney talking about his tax propos proposal. he said this. i want to play that clip. >> every middle income tax payer no longer will pay any tax on interest, dividends or capital gains. no tax on your savings. that makes life a lot easier. if you're getting interest from a bank, if you're getting a statement from a mutual fund or any kind of investments you v you don't have to worry about filing taxes on that. there will be no taxes for anybody making $200,000 a year and less on your interest, dividends and capital gains. >> the president, at the time of the debate, used the word sketchy to describe the governor's math. i want to play that chunk as well. >> if somebody came to you, governor, with a plan that said here, i want to spend $7 or $8 trillion and then we're going to

pay for it, but we can't tell you until maybe after the election how we're going to do it, you wouldn't have taken such a sketchy deal. and neither should you, the american people. because the math doesn't add up. >> the president called it sketchy. there's a new tax policy center that rated governor romney's plan and they say this. these new estimates suggest that romney will need to do much more than capping itemized deductions to pay for the roughly $5 trillion in rate cuts. other tax benefits that he has proposed. they're basically saying the math doesn't work. is this very damaging? the details have been low at this point. >> no. there's six other studies, including one from princeton and american enterprise institute and others that say that the romney math does work. the first question really is what's the president's plan to get us out of debt? he said four years, soledad. we've got 23 million people that can't work. we have higher taxes.

6 trillion more in debt and americans have $4,000 less in tax-home pay. i think we start with that and then ask what's the rationale for a second term of barack obama that's going to make us any more financially secure? secondly, i think -- >> let me stop you there for one second if i can. one was a blog post, some of those are completely partisan. so they've been debunked in a lot of ways. my question would be, you don't think the tax policy center is accurate when they say this is not going to work? this does not add up. that's what they say. >> no. i'm saying if you look at credible reports from american enterprise institute and princeton university, you've got on contrary view on that. there are studies, i think, on both sides. i'm saying there's not a plan for governor -- for president obama that he has laid out for the second four years that i think will produce any different result. at least mitt romney has a plan. what he believes is that you don't get more revenue to solve

the debt problem simply by raising taxes. that's the one plan that president obama has laid out. he said the way you do it, you have a tax code that encourages economic growth and job creation and you grow the economy that way. it really is a fundamental difference between two candidates on how you raise revenue and get us out of debt. >> as you well know, the american enterprise institute is a conservative think tank. having them support that is not exactly a surprise. before i let you go, i want to ask you a quick question about virginia. 2008, president obama was the first democrat to carry virginia in like 40 some-odd years. >> 44. >> 44 years. so predebate polling shows the president was up 15 points in the state of virginia. we don't really have good post debate polling yet. we're hoping to get that soon. how worried are you that the state will go for president obama when the polls show a significant lead predebate after the first pretty awful debate? >> i'm not sure what you're look

at there, soledad. i can only tell you that five months aago, mitt romney was down eight points in virginia. today almost all the polls have him had up one, two or more points. i think it had ha lot to do wit that first debate when people saw mitt romney and barack obama side by side. overwhelmingly and especially women, people decided this was a leader that focused on results, not rhetoric or blame, like the president, but had a way to get us jobs and an energy plan, and get us out of debt and provide more incentives for entrepreneurs. so there's a lot of polls, soledad, as you know. some are more reliable. but the trends are unmistakably going toward mitt romney. he was here yesterday, with paul ryan the day before. he will be back in the near future. he is spending a lot of time in -- >> like 20 some odd days so it better be the near future. 20 some odd days before the election.

we appreciate it. >> soledad, glad to be back on. >> pleasure. got to take a short break. still ahead on "starting point," take a look at these pictures. these are halloween ghosts but some people interrupted this as a racist sign. we'll talk about that in our tough call coming up next. if we want to improve our schools... ... what should we invest in? maybe new buildings? what about updated equipment? they can help, but recent research shows... ... nothing transforms schools like investing in advanced teacher education. let's build a strong foundation. let's invest in our teachers so they can inspire our students. let's solve this.

♪ (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. okay. our tough call this morning, after fielding lots of complaints the san francisco zoo is dismantling its controversial boo at the zoo in st. louis. they didn't want to be seen at night. several customers complained said it was racist and looked

like lynch iing. the big takeaway for halloween, if you're going to hang anything so that you avoid the lynching comparisons, bring in a black friend. have them eyeball your display, right? and say how do you feel about this? if they feel bad ly, take it down. what do you guys think? >> it doesn't seem it was meant ill but halloween is a big holiday for super insensitive stuff. i live in a brooklyn neighborhood with orthodox jews yet some people dress up like that for halloween. >> ghosts zroent black faces. having hung many ghost displays, they're just big white sheets, drag them around, pin them to things. why do your ghosts have black faces? it's a little weird. >> invisible at night, had lights inside? >> i totally get it. i would just say here is your risk of how it might be read. because my ghosts don't have black faces. just saying.

>> yeah. well -- >> there are going to be people with different views on this one. they clearly took the display down, probably best thing for a big organization. >> mayor is very political. >> it's a bad idea to have it if it offends your customers. >> i don't think the question is is the intention to be racist. clearly not. it's the st. louis zoo. it's more like the impact could give you something that you don't want, so avoid it. moving on. still ahead on "starting point," the latest plot to try to attack the united states. busted before it happened. new details on a wanna-be terrorist. live report straight ahead. also, one of mitt romney's sons said he wanted to hit the president. surprising radio interview with tag romney. woel play you what he said. this one is for the dogs, how celebrity chef rachel ray is reaching out to a new customer. we'll explain, straight ahead. so... [ gasps ]

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not quite knowing what the next phase was going to be, you know, because you been, you know, this is what you had been doing. you know, working, working, working, working, working, working. and now you're talking about, well you know, i won't be, and i get the chance to spend more time with my wife and my kids. it's my world. that's my world. ♪

welcome back, everybody. you're watching "starting poi " point." he pressed the detonator. it was a dud, though. foiled plot against the federal bank of new york. the feds say he had a vision of destroying america. national correspondent susan candiotti is following some of these developments for us. the way the plot was laid out shows that this man, young man, was willing to take it to the very end. >> he was. of course, one of the other big questions is, how well connected was he? he talked big, according to federal sources and according to the criminal complaint in this case, but authorities say they've been able to find no evidence that he really did have friends in al qaeda. he certainly was a devotee of al qaeda. he was the one who selected his target, which was the federal reserve bank right there on wall street, close to the stock

exchange. because, he said, he wanted to strike a blow at america's economy. in fact, sources also tell us that at one point he even mentioned taking out president obama before selecting a landmark like the federal reserve bank. here is what the police commissioner of new york, ray kelly, had to say. >> he comes here with the -- again, the purpose of committing some sort of jihad here in the united states. he goes to the new york stock exchange. he sees that there's significant security there and he shifts his target to the federal reserve bank. >> and there have been other sting operations like this. you might recall earlier this year, one man was arrested after aegd alleg allegedly plotting to blow up the capitol. he, too, had a bomb constructed and on his way there, a fake bomb. authorities made that arrest. this man has appeared in court already, didn't say much.

is represented by the public defender's office and we'll have to see how this all plays out in court. >> susan, thank you very much. john berman has a look at the other news making stories today. 20,000 pages from the boy scout of america's so-called perversion files are being made public today, leaders and volunteers dismissed for alleged sexual abuse. cnn spoke to one alleged victim. >> just thinking about it makes me angry, because how could you do that to somebody? how could you bring yourself to do that to somebody that is so innocent and, you know, has done nothing wrong. >> perversion file documents cover a period from 1965 to 1985. a court ordered a high profiled free speech case in texas expected to expire today. cheerleaders were barred from the government using banners claiming bible verses. they got a temporary restraining order against the ban but that

row straining order ends today. they are expected to continue the fight. mitt romney's oldest son said he had a hard time staying in his seat during the dough bait. listen to tag romney responding to a radio host when asked how he felt when the president questioned his integrity. >> what is it like for you to hear the president of the united states call your dad a liar? how do you react to that? >> well, jump out of your seat and you want to rush down to the debate stage and take a swing at him, but you know you can't do that because -- well, first because there's a lot of secret service between you and him but this is the nature of the process. >> he went on and said his father was terrified before debates and then corrected himself and said butterflies. >> i think his dad wants to hit tagg. >> 20 some odd days. ooh! >> tagg has been a big deal in

the resurgence. >> so intense for these families. >> it must be. it must be horrible to sit there and watch that 90-minute debate with someone you love, sitting there, hoping that they're going to do well. let's get to the latest jobless number this is morning. christine romans has that for us. >> it's really weird. 388,000 unemployment claims filed, up 46,000 from the week before. remember last week when i told you they fell 30 some thousand, it looked so strange? now they've risen by some 40 some thousand. last week's number with his a four-year low. that's now been revised up a little bit. to put this in perspective, though, you got this volatility within these weeks, let's look at a chart that shows the trend -- i guess we don't have it. if you looked athis trend, it would be drifting lower since 2007 after a really big spike. >> very contra addidictory.

>> some economists were saying it looked like california hadn't put all their paperwork through. california got mad and said no, we did everything by the book. we see this big spike in jobless claims so it seems there's seasonal distortion, something going on. it's the end of the fiscal year. you never know how that might affect things, too. you usually do not see such big moves over two weeks. >> you've been talking about a lot of the moves in housing as well and what was -- or has certainly been in the recent past a major slump. there could be some signs that they're on some recovery for the month of september, construction of new homes. >> strongest since july 2008, up 15% from the previous month, annual rate of 872,000. it has many people hoping that the u.s. housing slump could finally, could timely be here. i saw another report from

harvard from its report on housing saying remodeling activity is picking up. we're expecting more people, more money in the bank because they're able to refinance their homes. there's signs of loif in housing. >> interesting. we want to bring in housing wire editor jacob gaffney to join in on this conversation. you heard us talk about those numbers in housing. what does it meep fmean for the housing? are we in the r word, recovery? or is it too early to say that? >> no, it's not too early. we are in a housing recovery. it's the one bright spot in the economy. you just said some of the numbers. i want to add that is a 45% improvement year ly on housing permits. the trend of housing starts, new home builds, will continue. barkley's capital thinks we could see up to a million per month. as you said before, compared to '05, '06, that's still 60%, at

lea least, below those numbers. and with those jobless claims that george is saying, it seems even though the housing is in a recovery, you know, it's not supporting the jobs market. home builders are scaleable. they're not hiring up to build more homes. i mean, who is going to buy these homes if there's not jobs? that's the real concern going on right now on our side and what we're looking at. >> for people who hope this is a real recovery when you start a new home, you're talking about construction workers, brick layers, carpet layers and filling the home with goods. that's a real locus of economic recovery but we would have to double or triple to be healthy. is that right? >> that is correct. and when you're talking about health of the markets, jobs is number one. that is an excellent point. that's number one. the real question that we in the

housing and mortgage markets are dealing with now is that when is the mortgage recovery going to happen? you know, it's great that we're building these homes and it's good that we can refinance people who already have homes. but how are we going to get people into these homes, these new homes? >> i was going to ask you that. >> fannie mae, for example -- go ahead. >> new starts, that's an interesting number. if i own a home, trying to sell that home or trying to buy a home, what does this recovery mean for me? >> well, i guess that remodeling number is interesting, because are people doing this diy work to sell their home or are they planning to stay there? you know, we've done 6 million mortgage modifications and i don't know how many refinancings. those are people who are staying in their homes. they can't sell their homes. they're not going to buy homes. we have a huge overhang from the government sponsored enterprises

of fannifannie mae and freddie . you have to have such a high credit to get it. the major lenders, people who traditionally used to give people mortgages -- the money they're making on mortgages now is going not to new lending, but to paying for their legacy issues, the former lenders that have them in hot water and have them in the courts. >> lots of questions where all these -- i'm going to stop you there because -- >> yep. >> worry out of time. but, obviously, as christine has been following this number for us, we'll keep talking about is it really a recovery and is it a recovery for everybody? jacob gaffney joining us this morning. thank you. rachel ray is our next guest, her dog days just getting started, you could say. her pup-up truck. not a pop-up truck but pup-up truck. she joins us live, we're back in a moment.

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welcome back, everybody. look who i found when i opened up my "details" magazine, page 48. will cain, age 37, listed under the new wave of political pundits. here is what they say about him. he has proved himself a master at stirring up controversy, sparring with senator dick durbin and even host -- and even host soledad o'brien. >> even host soledad o'brien. >> that's your claim to fame. >> thank you, mr. mayor. >> very handsome photo as well. >> he's on the cover. >> that's right. it looks like colin farrell but it actually is will cain.

>> thank you. to details. i'm flattered. the average student debt, who wants to take a guess at that? >> $27,000. >> the average student debt has reached mind boggling levels. we'll bring christine back to talk about that and she'll be able to answer your question. rachel ray has a new season under way but also a new venture for dogs. we'll talk about that, live. her new pup-up truck, i love saying that, is right outside our studios. you're watching "starting point."

welcome back to "starting point." i'm christine romans. u.s. stock futures are down slightly. there's a big jump in jobless claims last week, 388,000

unemployment claims were filed last week, 46,000 jump from the woek before. remember the week before there was a big decline? wo we'll get aa look at the new housing numbers. settlement money meant for homeowners are instead being used by states to close their budgets. less than half has actually gone to struggling homeowners, according to a study by the housing nonprofit enterprise community partners first reported this morning in "the wall street journal." average student loan debt is now $27,000. class of 2011 graduated with debt. on average they have 26,000 in student loans. rising tuition costs and tough jobs market. >> you were off by 40 bucks. >> sounds like it could be higher. >> really, for overall average,

for people -- >> 50 grande year for private institutions. >> most people are not going to spend 50,000. >> $10,000 a year. >> crazy. >> lot of money. emmy-award winning cooking/talk show host rachel ray had a visit with first lady michelle obama for the new season and regis philbin will be making monthly appearances. she is also having fun off screen as well, launching a new pet food truck. she'll probably have the only pet food truck. right now it's parked right outside of our studios at columbus circle. you have a nutrish brand dog food. >> for human kids we started an initiative called yummo, to eradicate hunger and improve the overall health of american children. to droiv that, instead of having

big galas, asking people to write big checks, having auctions and all of that, we dedicated product across the board through all of our merchandise so that that would be the revenue stream for this. >> you made millions of dollars. >> yeah. we've used that model for the animal rescue. >> nutrish. >> it's been around a fewer years now. we've given away about 3 million so far, we've raised about 4. 100% of my proceeds go for animal rescue groups large and small. >> why pet food? >> my dog is my child. i do the work for the human kids because i think as americans we can't afford the health care co costs of the future if our kids are taking cholesterol medicine at age 9. >> is that your dog? what kind of dog do you have? >> a red-nosed pitbull, actually. i like to make people aware that pit bulls are not born evil any more thn a human could be born evil. i choose pit bulls. our initiative helps all animal groups, large and small. we have some partners that we always give to quarterly but then we do all sorts of

awareness and drives to drive money to the smaller mom and pop organizations that are helping save animals across the country. our food is made to human standards. >> you could have brought in dog food for us. >> i have eaten the kibble as a certain right of passage. that's why i have such good gums, clean teeth and nice shiny coat. >> never say i eat dog food on tv. >> right? >> she said she did. i think that's okay. >> it's made here in america and everybody -- >> what's in it? >> you can read the label just like you would a menu. peas, carrot, lamb, beef, chicken. they're terrific. we have just six organic treats, dry food. today we're launching the wet food and that's base d on the meals i make for my own dog, isa isaboo. the pup-up truck will be saving animals as if they were humans, on little plates and giving them doggy bags. >> that's cute. >> it's cute but it has a

purpose. 100% of my take from that goes to the animal rescue. in just a few years we're already up to about 4 million. >> regis philbin, who is hilarious, coming on once a month. >> he's there every couple of weeks. >> he calls you a little dynamo. >> regis is the king. he really create d the format o that intimacy. just chatting with the home viewer and sharing, you know, every day life. what he did last night or what he's doing next week. it's on. >> can he cook? >> we are teaching him. i taught him how to make bake sben eggs. we're working on breakfast, lunch sw & dinner and gets sort of a rege 101 every time he's there. it's an nba player cookoff. we do football players. we wanted to give the basketball players some love. regis and i next to a seven-foot human is just priceless. and monday you mentioned the first lady was on to launch our

season. and monday is ann romney. she says some shocking things in that one. >> she says some shocking thing? >> yeah. >> about her life or politics? >> we were playing a roulette game and she was answering vour questions. i can't give away the answer but one of the questions prompted one of the most funny things i've ever heard her say. >> what was the question? >> most embarrassing moment. >> ooh, interesting. >> that's a good tease. >> it involved a massage, not of her. >> whoa! >> it's crazy. it's crazy. she was great fun. what an inspiration she is. 14 years with ms and she's so strong and determined and she makes meatloaf, mitt's favorite meal, in the kitchen. she brought a whole bunch of the family with her. we had a lot of fun. very generous. >> nice to have with us. >> nice to see you. you come back to our show. >> i'm not a great cook but always to help and clean. >> you don't have to cook.

>> i know. >> we haven't seen you in a long time. >> i love to eat. >> perfect equation. >> done and done. great to have you with us. we look forward to seeing that truck outside this morning. so... [ gasps ] these are sandra's "homemade" yummy, scrumptious bars. hmm? i just wanted you to eat more fiber. chewy, oatie, gooeyness... and fraudulence. i'm in deep, babe. you certainly are. [ male announcer ] fiber one.

i'm in deep, babe. you certainly are. mike rowe here at a ford tell me fiona, who's having a big tire event? your ford dealer. who has 11 major brands to choose from? your ford dealer. who's offering a rebate? your ford dealer. who has the low price tire guarantee... affording peace of mind to anyone who might be in the market for a new set of res? your ford dealer. i'm beginning to sense a pattern. buy four select tires, get a $60 rebate. use the ford service credit credit card, get $60 more. that's up to $120. where did you get that sweater vest? your ford dealer. and the candidate's speech is in pieces all over the district. the writer's desktop and the coordinator's phone are working on a joke with local color. the secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategist's tablet. and while i make my way into the venue, the candidate will be rehearsing off of his phone. [ candidate ] and thanks to every young face i see out there. [ woman ] his phone is one of his biggest supporters.

[ female announcer ] with cisco at the center... working together has never worked so well. brought us whole binders full of women. >> my guess is they did not refer to what they presented as whole binders full of women. but perhaps referred to it as a well organized collection of qualified resumes. but, hey, boiinder of women, bo of broads, notebook of nipples, whatever. >> i can't believe he said that. time for "end point." mayor, do you want to start for us? >> when obama said he was busy responding to benghazi that mitt romney was putting out a press release. i thought that was a big issue

and symbolized romney's kind of just being politically expedient, taking advantage of the situation but not offering any ideas of his own. >> the thing that went viral, of course, was the binders full of women. does it matter? >> no. it's completely substantiveless. the mayor and i were talking about earlier moments that were good for both candidates. when obama said would you make an investment with so few details? mitt romney going over the details of wealth lost and housing prices and all of that, he does it very fluidly and asked do you want four more years of that? those were the very strongest moments. >> governor romney was very strong when he listed failures. >> exactly. >> when he was just tick iing o failures, that was a very, very good moment for him in the debate. >> basically holding his own out there against the president. i think democrats are get iting very nervous about this election. the polls are quite, quite tight. you don't want to be the